Strategic Roadmap Alignment of Grid and Communication Technologies

From May 24-25, 2023, I had the privilege of co-organizing a working session with Mitesh Parikh about grid infrastructure on the communication and protection side at GE’s Global Research Center (GRC) in Niskayuna, New York. The focus was identifying customer use cases and corresponding solutions that combine protection, automation, and control with communication functions. The format of the session was centered on brainstorming, where we split into teams to explore transmission and distribution and industrial segments.

Roundtable Review

On the transmission side, my industry peers and I honed in on renewable integration and grid stability challenges that will require line differential and fiber optic-based technology such as GE’s JunglePAX. We took into consideration digital substation infrastructure that will be needed, including communication network monitoring like the DS Agile digital control system, S20 switches, and the MiCOM series. We also explored the distribution segment where challenges include distributed energy resources (DER) integration, visibility of assets in real-time, and asset management. But all challenges present opportunities. Private LTE, fiber optic offerings, P40 Agile, MDS Orbit radio solutions, the Multilin 8 Series, and zonal autonomous control transmission are just some of the product streams and technologies that are available to help us solve the obstacles the industry is facing as it transitions towards the grid of the future.

Tools in our Toolbox

GE’s Research facilities are always a source of inspiration and a place of collaboration. For this particular session, we visited the Forge Lab – a hub cultivated on brainstorming, research, thought sharing, and the development of ideas. It is through these roundtable discussions that we were ultimately able to connect the roadmap. One key takeaway was the synergies we noticed across multiple business lines, meaning all of GE’s verticals can collaborate in the same space.

Roundtable sessions always offer a variety of perspectives: from customer-facing teams to the R&D teams, we were able to survey the use cases of technology, connecting customer-specific requirements to our capabilities. Whether it’s 5G, fiber optics, or private LTE, these are all tools in our toolbox, and I feel more confident than ever that together we can address the energy trilemma – we have all the pieces of the puzzle, now we just have to solve it.?